Go Fast or Go Better
Is it a race when you are running alone?
Is it a competition if all who play are just in one team?
Is there a winner when no one loses?
Is it Olympics or a light run every morning?
Suppose you are an athlete participating in the first ever Olympics of your life. You give your best keeping in mind that you will come next time too. Of course, you run like there is no tomorrow. But in the face of an injury, contrary to movies, you will sit on the bench waiting for another chance. Because you know its not the last Olympics and that you’ve got many more years ahead of you to run.
But what do you do on your last Olympics? Do you risk your body for achieving the extraordinary? Do you bet things you know are irreparable? Do you take the damage because it is the last time ever? No matter if the race ends you up on the wheelchair, do you still do it?
What are the options?
Either you run better or you run the fastest.
You run better since you have many years planned ahead of you. When it is about the whole career and not just a single race, you go the better way.
But you run the fastest when its just about that race only. Of course, a sane man may still look for the remaining life in good light but sports is a field of mavericks. The last race is supposed to be the fastest so you go the fastest. And then there are players who think every race is their last one. They run races, others run a career.
Simple.
But there are consequences. The better run results in good scores and a healthy career ahead. With a constant and stable career, you get ample time to get better and acquire worthy results.
On the other hand, the fastest run is a jerk to the career, the last push. You may break a bone here or there. You may go home in pain. With the medal or without it, the pain latches on your neck steadfast. And then you face your remaining life with a terrible lull and a great mess to deal with. Consequences for the latter are greater for the risk is greater too.
Humanity goes through something similar.
A runner has two ways to go. One in which he has the vision of a larger race, a larger career where it’s about winning in the career and not simply the race.The other in which it’s just about the next race only. And the winnings of that race are betted against your career.
One person improves him/herself and gets the least amount of consequences to deal with. They have a great time running.
The second person ramps up the game for each race individually and then goes to medic again and again. He looks down instead of looking straight ahead, just to fall in the cliffs he didn’t know were there.
Humanity does incremental improvement. It thinks about one problem at a time. It solves it and then moves on to the other. Humanity doesn’t plan its improvement. It just randomly thinks about the next one. Incremental improvement is not beneficial for humanity. It causes consequences that we have to then cope with separately. It’s like running for just one race while forgetting the whole career. It’s a mess.
For runners, there are races and one of them is clearly the last one, but for humanity, there is no race. No competition. Humanity is running a career with colossal risk and massive awards. And massive consequences too. Therefore we must plan long-term and think transgenerationally. For either, you go fast or you go better and here in this world, its the better person only who becomes the best.
